It is well known that, on trains and other types of railroad vehicles, there is a limited amount of available space, and this space must be divided between space for transporting people and/or goods, and space for the machinery and equipment operating the vehicle. The more this available space is taken up by the machinery and equipment required to operate the railroad vehicle, the less space there is to fulfill the commercial objective of the railroad vehicle, be it the transportation of people or goods, among other possibilities.
In order to more efficiently use the available space on a railroad vehicle, the underside of railcars are routinely used to support and transport auxiliary equipment, such as reservoirs, air compressors and electrical equipment. The associated compressed air hoses and electrical cables, including both high and low power cables, that may run from one end of the railcar to the other, are routed through the railcar ducts.
Typically, the underside of a railcar, also referred to as the undercar, is provided with a plurality of transverse beams extending between the sides of the railcar. These transverse beams, also known as stiffeners, serve to support and reinforce the floor of the railcar. In existing undercar assemblies, auxiliary equipment is supported on the underside of the railcar by means of small beams that are connected to the stiffeners, the small beams extending longitudinally between the stiffeners at various different locations. Brackets are welded to these small beams for receiving and holding the auxiliary equipment.
Unfortunately, the existing undercar assemblies for supporting auxiliary equipment on the underside of railcars lack any form of standardization. Rather the existing assemblies are complicated and, as a result, heavy and quite expensive to manufacture, install and maintain. In particular, the existing assemblies do not adapt well to different equipment layouts and situations.
The background information provided above clearly indicates that there exists a need in the industry to provide an improved undercar assembly for railcars for overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above.